


Lady and the Tramp

by dgalerab



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Christmas Feelings, M/M, Puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 07:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13142313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dgalerab/pseuds/dgalerab
Summary: Yahaba runs into an unexpected friend or three in his neighborhood.





	Lady and the Tramp

**Author's Note:**

  * For [preciouscrowchild](https://archiveofourown.org/users/preciouscrowchild/gifts).



> Merry Christmas everyone!

Though Shigeru can’t say he ever underestimated Oikawa, he has to admit he was not prepared for how hard filling his shoes would be. Practice under Oikawa was never easy, but never too much for them to handle. Oikawa was as careful with his team as he was reckless with himself. Keeping that sort of pace as the captain, though, is a lot harder.

He has to keep an eye on everyone, watch their limits and where they need to improve. He has to bring the first years into the team while letting Kunimi and Kindaichi develop even further than they did last year, and balance leading and cooperation with Watari and… and… well.

Well, Kyoutani.

They don’t necessarily have as much trouble with each other as they did last year. Ever since his graceless return and subsequent gelling with the team, Shigeru has almost enjoyed having him.

Almost.

He’s still stubborn, reckless, bad-tempered and impossible to talk to. It’s a constant struggle to talk to him reasonably, and even when they’re cooperating, Kyoutani is snappy and aggressive.

Shigeru sighs. He’s tired and he doesn’t know how to get Kyoutani to warm up to the first years and to be honest, he just wants to take a break for a few days. He’s never been so thankful for a weekend or for Oikawa’s “Mondays off” rule.

He staggers to the stairs of his apartment building and up to the fifth floor. He’s never been so happy to get to his bed so he can lay down and let his sore legs rest for once.

-X-

He feels better after a good ten hours of sleep.

His legs are still sore, but he wakes up to snow outside the window and a warm room. He drags himself out of bed and to the kitchen to make himself some pancakes.

There’s strawberries and whipped cream in the fridge, so he decides to indulge, making himself a beautiful breakfast to reward himself for a job well done this season. They’ve all been doing a good job, and he hopes they’ll finally make it to nationals and make Oikawa and the other ex-third years proud.

Still, he needs to find a way to properly make a connection with Kyoutani before tournaments start. It has to be possible. They’ve had their moments. Kyoutani is… well, he’s a hothead, but he’s been more or less reasonable lately. They’ve even had some conversations outside of practice (insofar as Kyoutani is talkative) that Shigeru enjoyed.

He has to find a way for them to understand each other when they’re both in the heat of the moment and ready to be argumentative. That’s the real challenge here.

He sighs and finishes off his pancakes, then decides to go for a light jog.

By the time he gets outside, the snow is starting to coat everything. It’d been more of a gray winter so far, but it’s finally starting to look like those Christmas cards his mother loves. It’s a little slippery for running, but it’s so nice walking in the gentle drift of large snowflakes that Shigeru keeps at it, jogging just enough to keep himself warm.

He’s watching the snow as he jogs, and he ends up bumping straight into someone as he rounds a corner.

“Sorry!” he manages, as a familiar, cross voice snarls, “Watch it!”

Shigeru stops. “Kyoutani?”

“Oh,” Kyoutani says, taking back some of the aggression in his voice. “It’s you.”

He’s holding a large box in his arms and is dressed in a hoodie and a slightly banged up leather jacket and a big, brown scarf. They all look a little like hand-me-downs, and Shigeru feels kind of weird in his matching blue tracksuit. “What are you doing here?” he asks.

Kyoutani scowls and looks away. “I’m visiting a… friend.”

“A friend?” Shigeru asks. He doesn’t mean to sound so surprised, but Kyoutani usually keeps to himself.

“Sort of,” Kyoutani says, holding his box tightly. It lets out a yapping noise.

“Do you have a dog in there?” Shigeru blurts.

“Yeah,” Kyoutani admits, looking sort of defensive about it. “I know a vet around here, but they’re not home.”

“I live near here,” Shigeru says. “You could come inside for a while if you want to wait for them.”

Kyoutani looks him up and down warily, then shrugs. “Sure.”

Shigeru nods, slightly proud of himself for reaching out, and leads the way. Kyoutani looks a little out of place in their building, like he’s also a stray that Shigeru is sneaking into his apartment.

“This is a nice place,” Kyoutani says, like he feels the same way.

“Yeah, it’s… nice,”  Shigeru says. This is entirely too awkward. He’s not sure he would refuse to call Kyoutani a friend, but he’s not really an _invite home_ sort of friend. But here they are, and Shigeru doesn’t mind, exactly, he just doesn’t know how to deal with this.

He opens the door for Kyoutani and lets him inside.

Kyoutani stands awkwardly in the door, looking at the Christmas tree and the lights like he’s never seen any before. “Your family Christian?” he growls, finally, like he’s trying to make small talk and hating it.

“No, my mom just likes the aesthetic,” Shigeru says, unzipping his sweater. “Uh. Feel free to sit down. And I can hang up your coat.”

Kyoutani sets down the box and shrugs out of his coat. He looks for the coat hanger, as though he wants to hang it himself, but when he doesn’t find it, he awkwardly hands Shigeru the coat. Shigeru hangs it in the closet for him.

“What kind of dog is it?” he asks.

“Two collie puppies,” Kyoutani mutters. “Found ‘em in the dumpster by my house.”

“Poor things,” Shigeru says, opening the box. The puppies are very young, just old enough to survive without a mother for a little while, but still fumbling in the blanketed box they’re in. They yip at Shigeru when they see him. He smiles despite himself.

“I’m trying to find a home for them,” Kyoutani mumbles. “I’ve already got three dogs, we can’t adopt any more.”

“Three?” Shigeru asks. He imagines them all as Rottweilers, for some reason. “We used to have a Chihuahua from a shelter but she died a year ago and we haven’t adopted another since.”

“Sorry,” Kyoutani says.

“She was pretty old,” Shigeru says. This is awkward, somehow, and Shigeru isn’t sure why, but he’s pretty sure Kyoutani feels almost bad about sitting on their pristine white couch.

“I’ve got a German Shepherd, a Pomeranian, and a Yorkshire Terrier,” Kyoutani offers, after a long, long silence.

“Oh, really?” Shigeru asks. The Shepherd fits, but the other two are hard to imagine.

“We live near a shelter,” Kyoutani says, and this is more than he’s willingly said to Yahaba in… probably the whole time he’s known him. He looks uncomfortable. “So sometimes I look around and just… I adopted the ones that liked me.”

Shigeru smiles. “That’s nice,” he says, bending over the box to look at the puppies so he can consider what to say to put Kyoutani at ease. He looks more nervous than angry, though there’s much of the same lines on his face for both expressions, and that makes it easier to want to befriend him for real. “Are you good with dogs?”

Kyoutani nods, and as if on cue, one of the puppies whines until Kyoutani picks it up and cradles it close. “Like ‘em better than people.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Shigeru says, scooping up the other puppy and sitting back. Kyoutani relaxes a little at the gesture as well. Maybe Shigeru is being too tense around him.

“Sorry I snapped at you yesterday,” Kyoutani says. “I was in a bad mood.”

It hadn’t seemed much worse than usual, and Shigeru is honestly starting to think it’s just Kyoutani’s way of dealing with the fact that he’s simply uncomfortable with people. Still, the apology is nice. Shigeru shrugs. “It’s fine. Would you like anything to eat?”

Kyoutani shifts nervously, like he’s never been invited to someone’s house and doesn’t know how to answer. “Sure,” he rumbles.

“What do you like?” Shigeru asks. “My mom makes all these weird Christmas dishes this time of year. Uh… pudding and ham… roast goose?” He feels weird about saying it. Being this into Christmas is so foreign for a Japanese family and he feels a little… well, prissy. “But also some strawberry cream cake!”

“I’ll eat whatever,” Kyoutani says, his voice deep and cautious.

Shigeru sighs and makes them both a plate of all the leftovers and warms them up in the microwave. He sits down beside Kyoutani, who now has both puppies in his lap and is inspecting the tree and all its ornaments. Shigeru hands him the plate, which Kyoutani takes tenderly. “We’re not big on any holidays,” Kyoutani says. “We just go down to the shrine for New Year.”

“Us too,” Shigeru says. “My mom saw some Christmas movie when she was young and she just loves it. She picked up a bunch of decorations in New York when she was there on business… like those gold ornaments… I don’t think she even bothered to figure out what they were celebrating, though.”

Kyoutani shrugs. “It’s nice though,” he says. “I like the lights.”

“They are pretty, aren’t they.”

They eat in silence, and Kyoutani takes out his phone a few times to check if the vet has arrived. “He probably won’t be home until the evening,” Kyoutani says finally. “Maybe I’ll come back tomorrow.”

“You could stay,” Shigeru says. “I mean, my mother isn’t going to be back until ten or so, so she won’t mind, and I don’t have homework before the break.”

Kyoutani hesitates, then manages a terse, “Thanks.”

Shigeru smiles. “Would you like to watch a movie while you wait?”

“I don’t really care,” Kyoutani snaps, but it feels more like he’s only snapping because he doesn’t like feeling unfamiliar in Shigeru’s home.

“I’ll get a blanket for the puppies,” Shigeru offers, and that relaxes Kyoutani some. Kyoutani really isn’t different from their old dog after she had just come home from the shelter. Not mean, per se, but nervous in an aggressive way.

He gets his warmest blanket for the puppies, handing it to Kyoutani and helping him wrap the puppies comfortably. Kyoutani is at his calmest as they deal with the puppies, smiling a little as one of them tries to lick him.

“They’re so cute,” Shigeru says. “I hope you can find homes for them.”

“Me too. They almost froze to death out there,” Kyoutani says. He scowls. “Who throws out puppies in the middle of winter?”

“I don’t know, but I’d like to give them a piece of my mind,” Shigeru says.

The corner of Kyoutani’s lips twitch. “Wouldn’t mind seeing that.”

“Yeah?” Shigeru grins. “Well, if you find out who did this, let me know and I’ll scold them for you.”

Kyoutani smiles. “Yeah,” he says.

Shigeru’s heart skips a beat at the smile, and he somehow ends up asking “I don’t suppose you want to watch the Lady and the Tramp?”

Which is the _lamest_ way he’s ever flirted with anyone and he’s pretty sure he did some horribly embarrassing things when Iwaizumi started arm wrestling everyone with his shirt off. (Of course, he hadn’t been alone in that, and Oikawa had taken the cake by visibly only barely stopping himself from licking Iwaizumi’s biceps. Somehow, Iwaizumi had been the only one not to notice.)

Kyoutani either doesn’t notice the reference or doesn’t show it. “I like it,” he says. “I had a Spaniel like that, for a while.”

“Oh,” Shigeru says. “That’s sweet. I’ll put it on.”

He skids to the TV and busies himself with setting it up before he can start blushing.

Well, it’s not _his_ fault.

When he does manage to work together with Kyoutani seamlessly, it’s… well, it’s great. And Kyoutani is attractive, in his own, very angry way, and now he’s finally relaxing a little around Shigeru and maybe Shigeru likes him a little… a lot…

He slides the DVD in and swallows a few times before sitting down, trying to feel out how close he can sit without making Kyoutani wary, but he just has to scratch the puppies a little for Kyoutani to let him as close as Shigeru wants to sit. The thought makes him absurdly heady, and he lets their shoulders bump a little.

Kyoutani doesn’t seem to mind, hugging one of the puppies closer.

Shigeru nearly breathes out a sigh of relief as the movie starts.

They watch just as silently as they ate, though they both get distracted by the puppies throughout the movie, scratching their heads and letting them wriggle in the blanket. Shigeru ends up with his head on Kyoutani’s shoulder, and Kyoutani doesn’t seem to mind, placated by the presence of the dogs.

He’s more shy than Shigeru has ever pegged him for, and that’s incredibly cute.

“Should we find something for them to eat? Maybe a little bit of ham or something?” Shigeru asks.

“Milk, maybe,” Kyoutani says. “I’ll text the vet.”

Shigeru nods. “I’ll hold them for a while you figure it out.”

Kyoutani bundles them up securely and passes them to Shigeru before reaching for his phone. They whine slightly at his absence, but are placated quickly by Shigeru’s warmth.

“I wonder if my mom would let me keep one of them. Are Collies ok in apartments if I take them out on my morning jogs with me, you think?”

Kyoutani shrugs. “Could ask the vet that too.” He looks at one of the puppies suspiciously. “I think that one likes you.”

Shigeru glances down at it. “Yeah, I think it does. They both like you, though, so if I keep one you’ll have to visit.”

Kyoutani is quiet for a while, before he finally murmurs, “Yeah?”

Shigeru really hopes he’s not visibly blushing. “Well, yeah. Watari comes by on weekends sometimes too, you know, to play video games and stuff. It’s pretty normal in a team, isn’t it?”

The silence is grueling for a good long minute. “Yeah,” Kyoutani says, finally. “I’m trying to be a part of the team.”

Shigeru nods. “You could try going a little easier on the first years?”

“What’d I do to the first years?!” Kyoutani growls.

“You keep yelling at them!” Shigeru snaps, though there’s little bite in it.

Kyoutani pauses. “I don’t mean to yell,” he says, avoiding Shigeru’s look like a pup being scolded.

“That’s ok,” Shigeru says. “I know you mean well, but I’m pretty sure you’re scaring the life out of them.”

“They suck,” Kyoutani grumbles.

“First years tend to,” Shigeru says. “Anyway, I’m not saying don’t tell them what they’re doing wrong, just don’t look like you’re going to murder them when you do.”

“I don’t look like that,”  Kyoutani protests.

“You _do_ ,” Shigeru laughs, not unkindly.

Kyoutani scowls. “I’m not used to people,” he says. “Dogs don’t care what I look like.”

“I don’t mind either,” Shigeru says, because as much as he used to hate Kyoutani’s perpetual bad mood, he doesn’t mind if it’s just nerves and a natural inclination of his face.

“Thanks,” Kyoutani says hesitantly. “No one’s ever said that before.”

“Well, you should try to make friends armed with puppies more often,” Shigeru teases.

Kyoutani’s phone vibrates and he checks it. “He says milk should be fine for them for now.”

“Ok,” Shigeru says. “Then lets feed those pups and watch something else while you wait.”

They rifle through the kitchen, carefully feeding the puppies while making snacks for themselves, and end up back on the couch, huddled together with another blanket, puppies crawling over them happily.

Shigeru yawns, somehow managing to rest his head on Kyoutani’s shoulder again without being mortified by how touchy he’s getting. Kyoutani still doesn’t seem to mind, looking content for once. “This is nice,” he says. “We should do this more often.”

“Yeah,” Kyoutani says. “I didn’t think you liked me much.”

“Well, I don’t _dislike_ you,” Shigeru huffs. “You’re just… a little hard to talk to.”

“Well, you’re always saying stuff when I’m worked up!”

“Because you shouldn’t get so worked up during a game! You can’t see your surroundings like that!”

They’re at each other’s throats again, just like that, but this time one of the puppies yawns and they both sit back in some amount of shame.

“I’m working on it,” Kyoutani says. “Noticing when I’m mad.”

“Good,” Shigeru says. “I guess I get worked up too.”

Kyoutani smiles again, small and almost timid. “You’re nothing like I thought you were when we both started playing together,” he says.

Shigeru blushes, because he knows what Kyoutani means.

Kyoutani’s phone buzzes loudly this time, breaking up a moment that Shigeru feels, in retrospect, could have gone just about anywhere. Kyoutani picks up the phone, growling a few small “yeah”s before hanging up. “My friend is back,” he says. “Thanks for letting me stay over.”

“Come again sometime,” Shigeru says. “I’ll ask my mom about keeping one of the dogs, so you have some pleasant company to keep you comfortable.”

“You’re not bad either,” Kyoutani mutters, but he’s clearly still more comfortable with the puppies he’s putting in the box. “I’m glad we talked.”

“Me too,” Shigeru says, seeing Kyoutani to the door so he can give him his coat. “And good luck with the puppies.”

“Thanks,” Kyotani says. “Uh… Merry Christmas.”

“You too, I guess,” Shigeru says, holding the door open for Kyoutani.

Kyoutani leaves, blushing a little himself, and Shigeru closes the door quickly and slides down it.

This is going to be a very, very awkward crush, but he doesn’t even mind it.


End file.
